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A Dangerous Path
A Dangerous Path is the fifth book in the Warriors series, written by Cherith Baldry and Kate Cary under the pseudonym of Erin Hunter. This individual book was written by Cherith Baldry. The plot is centered around Fireheart, a cat who gave up his life as a house cat to join ThunderClan, one of the four Clans of feral cats living in the wild. It takes up where the previous book left off, and presents the events as taking place during autumn. Plot Summary ShadowClan has a dark new leader, Tigerstar, the exiled deputy from ThunderClan. We are left wondering whether he will be satisfied with his power now — or whether his desire for revenge will burn stronger yet? Fireheart, the young ThunderClan deputy, fears that there is a connection between the rise of Tigerstar and the terrible dreams of danger that haunt his dreams. Meanwhile, a mysterious threat has invaded the forest, placing every life in peril. Cats hear the words "Pack, pack," and "kill, kill" uttered everywhere. Swiftpaw is killed by the "pack" and half of Brightpaw's (later Brightheart) face is torn off (she is later given the name "Lostface" by Bluestar). However, Fireheart doesn't have much time to dwell on that because of Bluestar's lack of faith of StarClan and even her own Clan. Fireheart doesn't know if he can convince Bluestar that ThunderClan cats aren't traitors and save the Clan at the same time. He worries if Bluestar is really out of her mind and wanting to attack WindClan, who Bluestar believes has been stealing ThunderClan's prey. However, Fireheart soon finds a bloodless way of solving the problem by secretly meeting with Tallstar, WidnClan's leader. Sandstorm and Cinderpelt quarrel in this book over Firestar. Erin Hunter later announced that Cinderpelt had always had feelings for Firestar. Meanwhile, Fireheart has been having problems with Sandstorm, starting when he gave Tawnypaw to Brackenfur to mentor instead of her, even though she was the obvious choice. He did because he was afraid Tigerstar might do something to hurt the mentors. Later he solves this problem by confessing his love for her, and Sandstorm forgives him. But soon Fireheart find out that a pack of dogs threatens the Clan. Fireheart suspects that Tigerstar has something to do with this. Fireheart finds a way to get the dogs out of the forest once and for all: by leading through the forest and over the gorge. When Fireheart is at the gorge, Tigerstar attacks him, holding him down so that he'll fall victim to the blood-thirsty beasts. Just at the last moment, Bluestar comes in out of thin air, slamming into the lead dog and driving it over the cliff to save her Clan. The dog goes tumbling over the gorge, but so does Bluestar. Fireheart hurries after his leader, but Bluestar dies shortly after she's pulled out of the river by Fireheart, Stonefur, and Mistyfoot (her own children whom she had sent to RiverClan to save her own Clan and become Clan deputy). Before her death, she tells Fireheart that he is the fire that would save the Clan. Now, after the tearful death of his mentor and leader, Fireheart has no choice but to become leader of ThunderClan. In this book Graystripe also returns to ThunderClan after warning Fireheart when Leopardstar was about to attack him, and pulled her off him. The cover features Fireheart and Bramblepaw.